Most of the time, it's almost impossible to feel truly rested and relaxed in the somewhat overpopulated urban jungle that is Singapore. Head to town for a spot of shopping, and you'll have to negotiate teeming crowds every 20m, shorter during the run-ups to various festive holidays. Hit a cafe or restaurant at mealtimes, and be prepared to sit jowl-to-jowl, backside-to-backside in some, whilst diners bore holes in your backs to force you to evict your table to their company. No, thanks very much, but I simply can't stomach crowds and hurried meals at times. And so, Greenwood Avenue was a welcome treasure of a dining experience.
Housing about 15 or so shops and restaurants, including the much vaunted Lana Cakes, the dining stretch of Greenwood Avenue is tucked away in a tiny pocket of chi-chi Bukit Timah. It has actually been lauded in many food review columns as the latest in dining gems, and my fellow foodie friend and myself finally decided to make a trip down to sample its many offerings. We decided on an Italian diner by the name of Peperoni Pizzeria, sister restaurant to neighbouring Sebastian's and Coq 'n' Bull, all owned by the Les Amis Group.
I typically don't like to dine al-fresco as I hate the stench of cigarettes, the metal chairs are usually greasy and cold, there's not much ambience despite the open-air concept and it's usually swelteringly hot as hell. But Peperoni knocked back all these minus points to my immense satisfaction. Its cobblestoned courtyard area sport comfy, old-fashioned cushioned seats and sunny yellow, rough textured walls, bringing to mind a hint of Italy; it's hugely popular with families so there weren't many smokers around; there were also old-world awnings to provide some shady respite in case of hot weather, as well as upright plants to cool down the temperature somewhat. Plus, they had numerous pop art wall pieces, what fantastic taste! All in all, a very beautiful, warm and cosy place to simply chill.
The menu was not very imaginative, offering your typical hearty Italian fare such as about 10 varieties of pastas, over 20 types of pizza and assorted snacks and appetizers.
First time I was there, with aforementioned foodie friend, we tried the Dutch meat balls with mustard, pizza with Shittake mushrooms and chicken and garlic sausage, as well as the seafood linguine (usually termed Frutti Di Mare). Tastes were very satisfying; pizza was full of quality ingredients and the linguine's tomato paste was fresh, not out of a can, and stir-fried to a divine garlicky, olive-ish fragrance. Not the assembly line kind where you boil the noodles, then dunk them in heated sauce. Second time I was there, just yesterday in fact, with the boyfriend, I had the minestrone soup while he tried the leek and potato soup. The minestrone was the real thing, filled with real vegetables and flavoured with sweet, tangy tomato, not the shit that Pizza Hut tries to peddle for, what, $4? Then we each had the seafood linguine minus clams and mussels, leaving just the prawns, squid and scallops. But it was good enough, the paste was just as fragrant and tasty and the seafood was much more fresh than it was the first time I ate there. Both times, we left without dessert as we had another dessert haunt in mind: Estivo Gelateria. Over both days, I tried four flavours: Simply Strawberry, Chocolate Peanut Buttercup, Butterscotch and Banana Sorbetto. Excellent, a tad too sweet at times but I must concur with the critics that the fruit-based flavours are the real winners.
Oh, I digressed. I simply must mention the additional plus points of Peperoni: You pay just what is stated on the menu, no GST or service charge; and for drinkers, they've got a huge selection of alcohol and international beers. Like I concluded with my various companions, I'd rate it 8.5 for ambience and about 7 for food. 4 for location though, although I think it is a major reason for why the area hasn't become crowded and claustrophobic yet. In that case, on second thought, I'd rate the location a 7.
There's really nothing much to do in Greenwood Avenue after dinner, except to take a stroll along the various streets of landed housing. Both times, I did just that, to aid in digesting my considerable dinners. And yesterday, I strolled hand in hand with the boyfriend through the various quiet streets and came upon a playground, where we sat on a bench and talked. Then we got up and contemplated the swing, but eventually decided not to risk the safety of the children who would get on it to play in the days to come, and ended up on the see-saw. And so we sat on opposite sides of the see-saw and bounced up and down gleefully, all the while laughing at the antics of a boy and his dog, a big black and white breed that looked somewhat like a Border Collie. They were both scrabbling down the slide together and each time, the dog would reach the ground first, its mouth open and its tongue hanging out, looking like it was laughing and having the time of its life. It's good for the soul to see animals being loved and cared for, really. And then, a while later, we decided to head to town to catch Jet Li's Fearless. Typical Chinese hero plot, yawn; typical Jet Li moves, meaning really impressive and, WOW. It's been some time since an old-school martial arts, Huang-Fei-Hong-esque movie came along, and for that reason alone, I just had to watch it. Despite it being a bit of a let-down (didn't stir up rah-rah, Chinese pride sentiments, and most importantly, didn't make me cry), I'd rate it about 6 or 6.5 upon 10.
It was a really good two nights. A perfect lead-up to neutralise the hustle and bustle of Chinese New Year.
Aaron Pok and his signature gesture.
Yannisms and her Cynic of a boyfriend, PDA-ing as usual, heh...
Boyfriend sharing Eau de Armpit with Pangy and GHZ.
Me and boyfriend, the goofballs.
Yokie looking hilarious and clownish in the photo, hee...
